Additives are commonly sold in combination with bottled water. Currently marketed examples include energy, or health, drinks, where the additive is provided in solution form. Other examples include a medication where the bottled water is supplied simply as a convenience for washing down a pill or a capsule.
In particular instances involving nutritional supplements, however, it is useful to supply the supplement in solid dosage form, similar to the medication example. Doing so improves the shelf stability of a natural active ingredient, and particularly one of a biological derivation, which might otherwise degrade or lose potency over time when in dissolution.
In contrast with the medication circumstance, however, the water is not just a convenience for administering the dosage. It is also a measured amount of ingredient required for the best metabolic results. Therefore, the means for combining the two components into a single package is an important aspect of the product put-up. One such means is with a dose cup inverted over the bottle cap.
Dose cups attached to bottles containing liquid products are known. In U.S. Pat. No. 526,772 to Dickerson and U.S. Pat. No. 525,753 to Turner, for example, a dose cup having measurement graduations is locked onto the neck of a bottle containing a liquid preparation by screw-thread or lug mechanisms. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,296,700 to Steele, a dosage cup is coupled to the cap of a bottle containing a liquid nutritional supplement. A friction fit with shoulder-like appendages in the cup provides the mechanism for attachment to the cap in this case.
The attachment means used for the above instances are not particularly secure, either in terms of retaining the cup or in terms of tamper-safety. In the marketplace of today, a well-known liquid product for cold and flu relief, branded Vicks® NyQuil®, provides a dose cup secured to the neck flange of a bottle by means of a shrink band. Shrink bands are considered to be tamper-indicating in certain cases, and the enshroudment of the cup prevents unintended separation. In U.S. Patent Application 2008/0000786 to Collotta, a secondary cap, in the configuration of a cup, creates a chamber to house a solid dosage preparation in the form of pills or capsules for a companion water bottle. The cup is held in place by a body-type shrink band.
The cup-over-cap provides a convenient means for packaging a nutritional solid dosage preparation with a measured amount of water. Transparency can be easily modulated to provide either visibility to the product or protection from harmful radiation. It also provides a convenient and sanitary way to handle the dosage when removed from the bottle. The shrink banding, on the other hand, has drawbacks. Because heat must be applied, there is a risk of degradation to a temperature-sensitive product. Furthermore, the operation represents an investment in equipment, an additional step in the production process, and an additional material expense. Lastly, the customer is inconvenienced by having to strip away the band.
The unfulfilled need is for a tamper-indicating put-up, whereby a cup assembled to a bottle containing a liquid provides a container for an accompanying solid dosage product in a simple, snap-together process avoiding the application of heat.